


Silent Night

by Hisa_Ai



Series: 31 Days of Christmas [30]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 31 Days of fic, Christmas, Christmas Prompt, Fluff, Love, M/M, Prompt Fic, Quiet, Silence, Silent Night, Yule, day 30, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-07 00:33:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hisa_Ai/pseuds/Hisa_Ai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silence is so loud, so soul-crushing and mind-numbing if allowed to fester, consume. But, it can also mean a lot for a developing relationship like the one Arthur and Merlin have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Night

* * *

 

The hardest night of winter, as far as Merlin was concerned, wasn't the longest night of the year, the coldest night, the night they were to fast to honor some age-old tradition, or anything of the such—for someone who claimed to reject the Old Religion, Merlin came to find out, Uther Pendragon sure did  
stick to a lot of traditions influenced by it.

No, the most difficult night of the winter, of the year, as far as Merlin was concerned, was the night everyone was to be silent.

_Dead_  silent.

No one was allowed to make a peep that night, that  _one_  night out of the whole year, and God help you if you did.

And Merlin dreaded the night every year.

It meant no sassing Arthur, no insulting him, no giving him a hard time or teasing him about anything, no complaining, no flirting, no magic, no noise whatsoever.

Of course, it would be too much to ask for to have such a night off.

_No_ , Arthur liked seeing him suffer too much to allow such a thing.

So, the second the tolling of the bells gave way to the night of silence and reflection starting, Merlin flinched, eyes closing for half a second before popping back open again to face a smirking Arthur. He held his armor in his hands, nodded towards it expectantly then laid it out on the table. Well,  _obviously_  he wanted Merlin to clean it, but...

No noise meant he couldn't exactly _tell him_  what he meant. And he thought Merlin was an idiot anyway, so he tilted his head, gave him a wide, innocent look, and blinked at him, not for a second missing the flash of irritation in Arthur's narrowed eyes as he mimed cleaning it, pointed at Merlin.

A night of silence meant Arthur couldn't yell at him, couldn't bark orders at him, couldn't insult him.

Perhaps a night of reverence wasn't the hell Merlin had always thought it to be, after all.

He walked over to Arthur, to the armor, pushed it to the other edge of the table. He was tempted to shove it off the table completely, but, he knew, if he  _dared_  pull a stunt like that, it would be the stocks or the dungeon for God knows how long. Instead, he moved it just to the side of the table, gave Arthur a rather expectant look, hands held tightly behind his back, asking a silent, sarcastic question with just the quirk of his eyebrow.

Arthur rolled his eyes, laid his chainmail out on the table as well, but what was Merlin supposed to do with  _that?_

A growl of irritation escaping his lips, Arthur narrowed his eyes. Merlin would be hearing about this first thing in the morning, after the night of silence was over and they were allowed to talk, allowed to make noise again, but tonight it didn't matter. Tonight, Arthur couldn't make noise, couldn't yell at him, couldn't  
be his usual prat self.

Merlin would be lying if he said he didn't like that sound of that. Well,  _figuratively_  speaking, of course.

He spent the rest of the short evening playing the fool Arthur always accused him of being, tilting his head in silent question when he held something up, mimed out a task for Merlin to do for him, eyes wide in mock innocence and wonder; he just wasn't  _getting_  it, he tried to convey with his eyes. And  _oh,_  how Merlin wanted to laugh at the offended, pissed off look on Arthur's face.

It was just too much.

Composing himself long enough to help ready Arthur for bed, Merlin bit back a smirk, chewing on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. He was sure Arthur knew what he was doing, but of course, he couldn't quite confront him about it.

In fact, he couldn't confront him about  _anything_  until morning. And morning, oh,  _morning_  was a lifetime away.

So he took a chance. He took Arthur's face in one of his hands, gentle and sure, ignored the silent—ha!—question in his eyes and kissed him, the muffled sound of surprise coming from Arthur so loud in the quiet of the night.

The sigh that followed shortly after as Arthur leaned into the kiss, one hand coming up tug at Merlin's hair and make him gasp out, the quiet moaning as they melted together, their breathing shallow as their hands roamed and tugged, a stinging, blissful feeling welling up inside Merlin at the way Arthur was kissing him like he was all that ever mattered—it was all much too loud, much too  _much_ , in the silence between them.

So Merlin kissed him again, challenging the night reserved for thought and meditation, reverence and quiet, telling it that if it wanted him to be quiet and respect it, it shouldn't have left him alone with Arthur Pendragon, of all people.

Come morning, the hustle and bustle of the castle coming back to life would be stark against the quiet the pair created between them, filling the air with only the odd sigh or gasp brought on by stolen kisses, stray nips at bare skin.

Maybe the quietest night of the year wasn't quite as bad as Merlin had always thought it to be.

 

 

 


End file.
